MIDDLESBROUGH don’t know where they will be playing next season but it’s a racing certainty Patrick Bamford will be mixing it with the big boys.

The on-loan Chelsea striker oozes Premier League class and at the Riverside last night he produced another dazzling display which keeps Boro’s promotion flame burning.

Whether Boro go up or not, Jose Mourinho will want him playing in the top flight in August and at this rate, he could even find him a place in his own star-studded squad.

Bamford - yesterday shortlisted for Football League Young Player of the Year - has carved out a real reputation this season, but the England under-21 striker is a maker as well as a taker of goals.

There was just three minutes were on the clock when he seized on Richard Stearman’s misjudgement to meet Adam Clayton’s long ball and roll it into the path of Vossen, and with Wolves keeper Carl Ikeme committed, the Belgian shot into an empty net.

Albert Adomah slipped a pass to overlapping right back Tomas Kalas whose pull-back to his fellow Stamford Bridge loanee saw Bamford initially take the ball away from goal before swivelling to hammer a crisp left-foot shot into the bottom corner.

The goal, his 17th of the season, took him past Italian legend Fabrizio Ravanelli as the club’s most prolific league marksman of the modern era.

It was a blistering start by Boro and they went desperately close to making it three inside 20 minutes when Adomah curled a stunning effort against the bar.But the home side were unable to build on their early platform on another fraught night for the 20,520 crowd.

Wolves, whose play-off dream is still very much alive, were a big disappointment before the break but once Bakary Sako reduced the deficit, beating Dimitri Konstantopoulos at his near post in the 53rd minute, they were the better side.

PLEASED: Aitor Karanka is happy with the win [GETTY]

Boro hearts were in their mouths when Rajiv van La Parra rattled the bar 20 minutes later but that man Bamford almost had the final word when his delicate chip came off the woodwork deep into injury-time.

“The first half was amazing and we played very well,” said Boro boss Aitor Karanka, who could be without Jonathan Woodgate and Adomah at Norwich on Friday night.

“But Wolves were much better in the second and it was our crowd who helped us hang on.”

A second defeat in four days was a major blow for a Wolves side who are now three points off sixth-placed Ipswich.

“We played against a ruthless Boro side but after being disappointed with the goals we conceded, we fought to the bitter end,” said manager Kenny Jackett.

“And that’s the fighting spirit we will need in our remaining three games which we need to win.”